Early ART can save lives of HIV kids
JOHANNESBURG, 3 August 2010 (Sowetan) - A South African study has found that treating HIV-infected infants with antiretroviral therapy soon after birth, rather than waiting until they get sick, leads to improved survival rates.
The study found that giving ART to HIV-infected infants from the age of seven weeks made them four times less likely to die in the next 48 weeks, compared with postponing ART until signs of illness or a weakened immune system appeared.
These findings come from the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) trial.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci said: "HIV devastates the nascent immune systems of infants very quickly. Yet too many HIV-infected infants do not get tested for the virus, get tested too late or get tested but lack access to life saving antiretroviral drugs.
"The results of CHER are a clarion call to scale up widespread early HIV testing of at-risk infants and to make ART immediately accessible to all infants who test positive," Fauci said.
In South Africa 59000 babies were born HIV-positive last year. The number of children on ARV therapy now stands at 103000.
Principal CHER investigator Gesine Meyer-Rath said during the 18th AIDS conference, that the study showed that starting antiretroviral treatment in asymptomatic HIV-infected infants with a CD4 percentage of less than 25, at a median age of seven weeks, reduced the death rate from 16 to four percent compared to those whose treatment was delayed.
"This indicated a 76 percent reduction in infant deaths in the immediate-treatment arm. Those with delayed treatment showed a rapid disease progression and sudden death," she said.
The results of the study have been welcomed by many. As a result, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was to recommend immediate treatment of all HIV-infected children under the age of two regardless of their CD4 count or disease stage. But, not many countries will afford to do due to the cost of pediatric ARV drugs.
Meyer-Rath was optimistic that South Africa could afford to treat babies from seven weeks.
"Early treatment during the first year of life not only improves infant survival but provides significant cost savings. Infants who are treated early are less likely to be hospitalised than those who get delayed treatment. The money used to treat and care for them while waiting to be started on ART can used to buy drugs," she said.
The government had adopted the recommend early paediatric treatment in its new guidelines for HIV treatment in 2010.
Source: sowetan
